Media blames Donald Trump for attack on 'Empire' star: Bolt6:37

Black, gay singer and actor Jussie Smollett claims he was attacked in Chicago by two racist and homophobic men who shouted slogans used by US President Donald Trump.
Sky News host Andrew Bolt says the media blamed President Trump for the incident, and that similar anti-Trump stories have been publicised in the past, that have since proved fake.
Mr Bolt says the ‘strange’ story should be a warning against people pushing stories they want to believe are true, but which they ‘cannot know are true’.

February 6th 2019

2 months ago

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According to sources, US actor Jussie Smollett allegedly staged the racist and homophobic attack that he said occurred to him in Chicago. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

Jussie Smollett allegedly promised to pay two friends $4000 ($A5600) to stage his racist and homophobic assault — which the trio even rehearsed beforehand, according to a new report.

According to the New York Post, the embattled Empire star paid $3500 ($A4900) to bodybuilding brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo before they left for Nigeria the day of the Jan. 29 attack, and promised another $500 ($A700) upon their return to the US, sources told CBS Chicago.

Smollett’s lawyers Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson released a statement late on Saturday, saying the actor is “angered and devastated” by claims he staged the attack, according to ABC Chicago.

“He has now been further victimised by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying,” the statement said.

Sources allege that the two men . Picture: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, FileSource:AP

“One of these purported suspects was Jussie’s personal trainer who he hired to ready him physically for a music video. It is impossible to believe that this person could have played a role in the crime against Jussie or would falsely claim Jussie’s complicity.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter to weigh in on the Smollett controversy.

“It appears that Jussie Smollett tried to manufacture a hate crime to make Trump supporters look bad and most of the media not only uncritically accepted his lies as facts for weeks, but attacked those who questioned the validity of his false story,” Trump Jr. wrote.

US President Donald Trump previously condemned the alleged hate crime as “horrible.”

Smollett claimed the beat down was provoked by his public comments against Mr Trump.

This article first appeared in the New York Post and is republished with permission.